Dlawer Ala'Aldeen (born 1960) دلاوه‌ر عبدالعزيز علاءالدين, is President of the Middle East Research Institute, a policy-research institute, based in Erbil, Kurdistan Region of Iraq. He is a former Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research in the Kurdistan Regional Government [1] (2009-2012) and professor of Medicine at the University of Nottingham in the UK.[2]

Dlawer Ala'Aldeen was born in the town of Koya in Iraqi Kurdistan. His father was a primary school teacher and author of several books published in Kurdish, including "the life of Mohammad" and "Exegesis (Tafsir) of Quran". Dlawer grew up in and around the city of Arbil, and studied medicine in Baghdad.[3]

On the 28th of October 2009, Ala'Aldeen was sworn in as the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research in Kurdistan Region of Iraq.[1] He left the position as a result of KRG cabinet change on the 5th of April 2012. After a brief return to his University position in Nottingham, he founded a new policy-research institute (The Middle East Research Institute, MERI) in Erbil, Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

Ala'Aldeen has long lobbied for Kurdish people's human rights and campaigned for a global ban of chemical and biological weapons. His own parents and siblings were among the survivors of the chemical weapons used in Iraq.[7]

He was active in the late 1980s and early 1990s, lobbying within the British Parliament, media and Government. With UK-based colleagues, he founded the Kurdish British Scientific and Medical Support Group (KBSMSG) in 1988,[8] which later became the Kurdish Scientific and Medical Association in 1989. He was elected as the founding Secretary and later the Chairman of KSMA, before the organisation expanded into the Kurdistan Medical and Scientific Federation.[8] He was also an active member of the British academic group, The Working Party on Chemical and Biological weapons between 1988-1996.

Ala'Aldeen met Mrs Margaret Thatcher, the former British Prime Minister, and Dr George Carey, the Archbishop of Canterbury, in April 1991 and persuaded them to put pressure on John Major (then British Prime Minister) [9] and George HW Bush (then President of USA) to help end Saddam Hussein's attack on the Kurds. This was in the aftermath of the second Gulf war, when almost two million displaced Kurds fled to the borders with Iran and Turkey. As a consequence, a "no-fly zone, Safe Haven" was established north of 36th parallel north that lasted from April 1991 until the fall of Saddam regime. The Safe Haven allowed the Kurds in Iraq to return to their homes, elect their own Kurdistan Regional Government and Kurdistan Parliament. Ala'Aldeen has published a book on Lobbying for a Stateless Nation;[10] and investigated the use of chemical weapons in Kurdistan,[11] and the poisoning of Kurdish refugees in Turkey (published in the Lancet, 1990 Feb 3;335, p. 287-8).

Ala'Aldeen has long been involved in capacity building for Iraqi and Kurdistan Universities and establishing academic links with British universities. On 28 October 2009, he joined Dr Barham Salih's Cabinet of Kurdistan Regional Government as Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research.[12]

نيشتيمانسازی و سيسته‌می فه‌رمانڕه‌وايه‌تی خۆماڵی له‌ هه‌رێمی كوردستان Nation Building and the System of Self-Governance in Kurdistan Region- by Dlawer Ala'Aldeen; published in 2013

He initiated a major reform process in the system of Higher Education, with the aim to raise standards and help Universities gain total independence. He led a major and highly transparent scholarship program for sending thousands of students abroad for Masters and PhD studies. His first-year report (A roadmap to quality) in 2010 [13] and a second year report (On route to quality) in 2011 outline the process of reform, including the first introduction of teaching quality assurance in Universities, continuous academic development for teachers, split-site PhD programs, restructuring university management in preparation for independence, introducing electronic system for student applications, converting technical institutes to Polytechnic Universities and modernising postgraduate (specialised) clinical training. He introduced the process of appointing staff on merit via open competition, and took measures to ensure equal opportunity and gender equality in the system of higher education. He submitted two legislative drafts for reforms in higher education and postgraduate clinical training. Ala'Aldeen faced fierce resistance from anti-reformists and interest groups, particularly when he closed down five private dental and pharmacy Colleges in 2010 and four previously licensed private Universities in 2011.

Ala'Aldeen is the Founding President [7] of the Middle East Research Institute (MERI), an independent, non-profit think tank which is focused on policy-issues and governance reform in Iraq and Kurdistan Region. Funded mainly by a Capacity Building grant from the KRG's Oil and Gas Council, MERI became operational in May 2014 and held its inaugural forum (MERI Forum 2014) in November of the same year. The Forum (title: The Middle East in Transition: The need for Dialogue and Reconciliation) was held in Erbil and included live debates between Iraq's top politicians, including the President and Parliament speaker of Iraq as well as the current and previous Prime Ministers of KRG ([8]).

Ala'Aldeen participated on a Wilson Center-hosted panel of academics discussing “Turkey, Iraq, and the Kurdistan Regional Government,” the future of Iraq after the 2014 wave of violence initiated as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant threatened security in the country, including in the Kurdish region, disrupted politics, and posed threats to many minority ethnic and religious groups.[14]

Ala'Aldeen has published extensively in international scientific journals and co-authored three books in microbiology, Staphylococcus Aureus: molecular and clinical aspects; Molecular and Clinical Aspects of Bacterial Vaccine Development; and Medical Microbiology. He also holds patents for anti-Campylobacter agents and meningococcal vaccine candidates.[15]

He was chairman or member of a number of National learned societies and committees, which included:

As a Kurdish writer, Ala'Aldeen has published numerous articles, mainly in the Hawlati newspaper,[23] on the impact of global politics on Kurdistan and on strategic issues relating to Kurdish human rights.[24][25] He has published a book on "Lobbying for a Stateless Nation" (2007) and a book on "Nation Building and the system of self-governance in Kurdistan Region" (2013).